George, if you're worried about the fiscal cliff, well, there's the power ball fever. The jackpot hitting a record $224 million. John muller is right where people are lining up to buy the hot tickets. John, good morning. Reporter: Good morning, amy. This is where the dream begins for millions of americans at mom and pop shops like this. In new jersey, the line is not so bad this morning, in and out, but they will be out the door wednesday night. Keep in mind, 425 million bucks comes with 425 million stresses. Here's what you need to know. With no winner this weekend and three days until the drawing, the frenzy to buy ticketing for the biggest jackpot ever is in full swing, including georgia and florida, the first to allow hopefuls to buy online. Now imagine it, you just won the $425 million. You've never felt better in your life, right? Wrong. It wouldn't even begin to describe allow your stomach feels. So your ability for memory, decision making, rationale thinking is kind of on the decline. Some people say even i.Q. Can drop, sometimes as much as 20%. Reporter: Experts say the first thing to do, turn the ticket over and find out how long you have to claim the dough. Next, get a safe deposit box, put the ticket inside where it can't be lost or stolen. Get a new cell phone number and put the home phone on voice mail. Then hire professionals who specialize in financial windfalls. Even if you say, money won't change me, I like my life, it will. Reporter: Not always for the better. The jackpot club is littered with casualties. Too many to list. Jack whittaker, the largest payout in history, saw his life consumed by hardship and loss. Experts say don't be too quick to hand out money to friends and family without long serious planning. On the whole, studies though jackpot winners are happier with the money but expect five years to pass before you feel any sense of normalcy again. All right. Enough good advice. Here's random silliness. You could buy 2,000 per aris, the island nation of acela twice. You stand a chance of winning an academy award, but just the same, I got my ticket. Yeah, if you don't buy one, you're at zero. George and I got to the bottom of this, you've never played the lottery? I'm playing today. I've never played. Find out thursday if she's won. We're going to turn to that

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.